Hair can suffer damage from a number of sources. For example, environmental sources of hair damage include such as exposure to UV and chlorine. Chemical sources of hair damage include treatments such as bleaching, perming and straightening, and overly frequent washing with harsh surfactant-based cleansing shampoo compositions. Mechanical sources of hair damage include excessive brushing and combing and prolonged use of heated appliances for drying and styling the hair.
Damage to the hair typically manifests itself in cuticle and protein loss from the hair fibre, hair fibre dryness, hair fibre brittleness and breakage and frayed or split ends. Dry, damaged hair is particularly prone to manageability problems, resulting in symptoms such as “flyaway” hair which is difficult to style or which does not retain a style, especially under conditions such as high humidity.
Various organic molecules and combinations thereof have been suggested for use in the treatment of dry, damaged and/or unmanageable hair.
For example, WO 2004054526 describes hair treatment compositions for the care and repair of damaged hair, and for improving hair manageability, comprising a disaccharide, (in particular trehalose), and a diacid (in particular adipic acid).
WO 2004054525 describes hair treatment compositions for the care and repair of damaged hair, and for improving hair manageability, comprising a disaccharide (in particular trehalose), and a diol (in particular 3-methyl-1,3-butanediol).
WO 2004006874 describes hair treatment compositions for repairing and preventing the principal symptoms of damaged hair, comprising specific branched amine and/or hydroxy compounds (in particular 3,3-dimethyl-1,2-butanediol).
The present inventors have found that hair treatment compositions comprising a combination of a sugar, an aliphatic amino acid and a basic amino acid show improved efficacy in the treatment of hair which is dry, damaged and/or prone to manageability problems.